"This thing..."
Marco's fingers unconsciously stroked his chin as he seriously examined the giant ice sculpture before him.
Wisps of frigid air seeped from the ice's surface, causing the temperature in the already chilly underground space to drop even further.
The massive block of ice glinted with a faint blue luster under the dim light.
This "Deliora" had a ferocious posture.
It stood upright on its hind legs, its body was enormous, and its pose of baring fangs and brandishing claws instantly gave Marco a strong sense of déjà vu.
Its appearance was just too similar to the Beast King that Elfman had taken over!
"Deliora is a demon artificially created by Zeref. Is it possible that when Zeref was creating demons, he borrowed the appearance of certain powerful magical beasts? Like that Beast King?"
Marco's speculative voice echoed in the cold air.
He walked a slow circle around the giant ice sculpture, his boots making soft crunching sounds on the gravelly ground.
"It's entirely possible." Marco answered his own question.
The other three people and one cat were clearly unable to answer it; it was way over their heads.
"Ur..."
Looking at the ice-sealed demon "Deliora," Gray's expression was pained, and his voice held a suppressed tremor.
He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, his nails nearly digging into his palms.
Gazing up at the massive block of ice, Gray seemed to see the gentle yet powerful figure of the woman who was like a mother to him within the thick, solid ice.
Pain and nostalgia intertwined in his eyes, making them slightly red.
The cold air emanating from the ice sculpture seemed to invade the bottom of his heart and seep into his mind.
Though they were both looking at the same massive block of ice sealing the demon, Marco's and Gray's points of focus were almost completely different.
It couldn't be helped.
Marco was ultimately looking at it from an observer's perspective, whereas for Gray, this was filled with nothing but his own story.
"What should we do now?" Natsu scratched his head.
He looked at the distressed Gray, then at the big block of ice, and then at Marco, unsure of what to do.
He had sensed a shift in the atmosphere, but right now, all he wanted was to complete the mission.
"This Deliora is underground. How is it supposed to be bathed in moonlight?" Lucy frowned, her face full of confusion.
She walked around curiously, carefully observing the huge space deep beneath the temple.
Dim light leaked from unknown cracks overhead, barely illuminating the ice sculpture's silhouette.
The air in the cavern was filled with the smell of dust and cold.
"Look up. Can you see the sky directly?" Marco spoke with a smile, raising a hand to point upward, signaling for the others to look above where "Deliora" was.
At Marco's words, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy all gathered around.
They looked up and saw a huge, irregular opening split open in the cavern ceiling, like a skylight cleaved by a giant axe.
Through it, they could clearly see a small patch of the deep night sky, dotted with a few small stars.
"You're right! So they're planning to shine the moonlight down from here?"
Lucy immediately thought of this.
The "Moon Drip" ritual was the key to undoing "Iced Shell."
The moonlight from the "Moon Drip" ritual had to shine on this large block of ice to dispel the magic.
The large hole above was obviously for this purpose.
"That's right. This spot is actually the very center of the entire temple. Once the Moon Drip ritual begins, the moonlight will shine down from the opening at the top of the temple and ultimately land on this Deliora." Marco continued to explain, having already figured out the entire ritual.
"Then all we have to do is tear down this temple, and they won't be able to perform the ritual!"
Natsu slammed his fists together and jumped up excitedly, a brilliant, trademark smile full of destructive intent on his face.
The fiery magic power around him surged faintly, stirring up a hint of hot air.
"In a sense, that's not wrong." Marco chuckled, responding with a slightly teasing tone to the typical "Natsu-style solution."
As long as the moonlight could be prevented from hitting the target, the ritual would naturally fail.
Destroying the temple to block the moonlight was one way to do it.
"Where's Lyon? We have to capture him." Gray interjected.
He felt they had to deal with the main culprit, otherwise just demolishing a temple would be useless—it wouldn't solve the root problem.
They could just set everything up again, or even move "Deliora" out directly.
This "temple" wasn't essential for the ritual; the people performing it were the biggest problem.
"No rush. They'll definitely come here. We'll just wait for them." Marco wasn't in a hurry.
His gaze was still on "Deliora."
"As for this Deliora, I'll send it away first."
With a thought, Marco was already clad in the majestic Gemini Gold Cloth.
He had his own solution for this mission: simply take "Deliora" away.
Without "Deliora," the ritual would lose all meaning.
"Another Dimension Space!"
Marco extended his arms, crossed them in front of his chest, and then flung them outward.
A powerful surge of magic instantly rushed forth.
Space tore like fragile cloth, forcibly ripped open by his hands.
A deep, dark spatial rift, its edges flickering with unstable purplish-black lightning, appeared out of thin air above the ice sculpture.
"VMMMM!!!"
Under Marco's continuous and stable output of magic power, the rift rapidly expanded like the gaping maw of a monster, eventually swallowing the entire massive block of ice that sealed the demon "Deliora."
The ice block emitted a teeth-grinding creak as it was pulled by the spatial turbulence and was instantly sucked into the profound darkness, vanishing without a trace.
With this slick move, Marco had directly banished "Deliora" to the distant Edolas.
The "Moon Drip" ritual would probably be unable to cross worlds to shine on "Deliora."
"Stop!!! What are you doing?!!"
A sharp roar rang out.
Several hawks made of ice shot out from the temple's shadows, whistling through the air with a biting chill, their target being Marco, who had just finished casting his spell.
The one who had cast the magic was a man wearing a menacing metal helmet that covered most of his face, leaving only his nose and mouth exposed.
His eyes, from under the helmet, were fixed on the spot where the spatial rift had just closed.
Even through the metal faceplate, his heaving chest and twisted lips clearly conveyed his towering rage and utter disbelief.
His entire body trembled slightly from extreme fury!
"WHERE IS DELIORA?!" The helmeted man roared, unable to believe that "Deliora" had just vanished!
Beside the helmeted man stood another man, a woman, and a creature that looked like an upright-walking dog.
The expressions on this man, woman, and dog's faces were complex beyond words.
They gritted their teeth, their eyes filled with intense unwillingness, but even deeper was an undisguised fear in the face of absolute power.
Especially after getting a clear look at Marco's iconic Gold Cloth, their bodies even involuntarily shrank back a little, having clearly recognized him.
---------
Read 50 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator